YouTube: ‘We’ve been listening’ in wake of Logan Paul controversy

YouTube is again facing criticism after it responded to a controversial
video by vlogger Logan Paul.

On Dec. 31, the vlogger published a YouTube video filmed in Japan’s
Aokigahara forest, also known as “suicide forest” due to the large number
of suicides that occur within its boundaries. The video depicted him and
his crew reacting to a dead body hanging from a tree, and showed close-up
shots of the body.

On Jan. 1,
Paul apologized. The next day, he took down the video and issued
a longer apology—which many criticized for displaying ads—and on Jan. 3, Paul said he was
taking a break from YouTube “to reflect.”

In the week following Paul’s apologies, YouTube has largely remained
silent.

“The company issued a short statement to YouTuber Philip DeFranco at the
height of the outrage against Paul, one that many observers felt didn't
really say much at all,”
Syracuse.com reported.

Now, more than a week later, it issued an apology that many say lacked
transparency and action.

On Tuesday, YouTube tweeted the following thread:

An open letter to our community:

Many of you have been frustrated with our lack of communication recently. You’re right to be. You deserve to know what's going on.

Suicide is not a joke, nor should it ever be a driving force for views. As Anna Akana put it perfectly: "That body was a person someone loved. You do not walk into a suicide forest with a camera and claim mental health awareness."

We expect more of the creators who build their community on @YouTube, as we’re sure you do too. The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences.

It’s taken us a long time to respond, but we’ve been listening to everything you’ve been saying. We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so we’ll have more to share soon on steps we’re taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again.

The
statement spans five tweets and ends by saying the site will reveal steps it’s taking to prevent this
from happening again. But as of publication, Logan Paul’s channel is still
on YouTube, so whatever.

Between when Paul’s original video was published on Dec. 31, and the time
it was taken down on Jan. 2, there were a series of events that occurred
that had little to do with YouTube. An age-gate was reportedly instituted
on the video by Paul; the YouTube moderation team
allegedly reviewed the video after receiving a flag and deemed it OK; Paul’s video reached number 10 on
trending without anyone from YouTube taking notice; and then Paul finally
took the video down, not YouTube.

Many YouTube vloggers and viewers attacked the platform’s statement, as
well:

While it’s good that they have said something not auto generated, we need more responses to Youtuber issues. Maybe then will the bond between platform and creators be restored. Otherwise, you’re keeping everyone in the dark. And that’ll only make things worse @YouTube

You answered 10 days after the outrage, and Logan Paul's channel is still up.
This isn't a lack of communication. You purposely waited for the issue to die out so you can make a blanket statement and pray that everything will be forgotten.

YouTube's upload-anything-anytime ethos is constantly being challenged by
the posting of videos containing inappropriate content and even depicting
potentially illegal conduct. The company has at times struggled to enforce
its policies prohibiting violent and gory videos.

"If a video is graphic, it can only remain on the site when supported by
appropriate educational or documentary information and in some cases it
will be age-gated,"
YouTube told CNN Tech when the Paul video first garnered attention.

So, what should be the next steps for a platform facing content controversy
and a struggle with enforcing its policies?

Some say the proper action is to remove Paul from the platform. At time of
publishing, a
Change.org petition calling for YouTube to delete Paul’s channel has garnered nearly 468,000
signatures.

YouTube has a strict set of guidelines that come with clear consequences if
those guidelines are broken. In the case of Logan Paul, because YouTube
deemed his video to be in violation of community guidelines, he should have
received a strike against his channel. This could result in monetization
problems down the road and essentially put Paul on probation in YouTube’s
eyes.

… The most common comparison being used right now is between PewDiePie,
YouTube’s most popular creator, and Paul. When PewDiePie was discovered to
have anti-Semitic imagery in a video, YouTube canceled the second season of
his show, Scare PewDiePie, and doled out a number of other
consequences. In the span of more than a week, YouTube seemingly hasn’t
done anything to Paul’s channel, despite the company’s rules stating
otherwise.

Along with setting a more transparent and fair system of punishment for
breaking its rules, YouTube also can rebuild trust with its community of
creators and viewers by clearly outlining its steps to “ensure a video like
this is never circulated again.”

However, Burns and Alexander said the first step YouTube should take is
owning up to its mistake—which includes explaining how and why it approved
Paul’s video in the first place, and allowed it to garner more than 6
million views before Paul took it down.